I spent last week with 60 people in an invite-only business and marketing class. The group included a product manager at Google, a former speechwriter for a congressman, a programmer who writes software for major banks, the owner of one of the largest commercial construction companies in Texas, two published authors, the founder of a charter school in California, and the owner of an executive coaching firm. Lots of diverse experiences, but all were successful.
And in the three days, I didn’t meet one who’d gone to an Ivy League school. In fact, the most selective college I heard mentioned was Tufts—that’s where the class instructor went.
It would be hard for someone with even the most incurable case of namebranditis to spend any time around these people and still believe that going to a prestigious college was a prerequisite for being successful. There are plenty of important roles in the world to be filled. It will be up to you, not the name of your college, to cast yourself in one of them.